Wedding Day Jitters
by KT Welsh
Summary: Hermione Granger is experiencing some wedding day jitters. But is Blaise Zabini really the best person to help her deal with those nerves? Oneshot. Written before HBP.


_Disclaimer: I don't own it, JKR does. _

**Wedding Day Jitters**

Hermione Granger slipped out of the back door of The Burrow unnoticed, a task made easier by the fact that dawn had only just broken and no-one else was up, not even Molly. The Weasley matriarch would no doubt be awake soon, because she had taken on the task of preparing much of the food for the wedding feast later that day, but Hermione didn't want to think about that just yet. She was doing her best to block all thoughts of the wedding from her mind. Which probably wasn't the best thing she could do, since she was the bride and all, but then Hermione was past caring about what she should and shouldn't be doing.

Pulling her robe more tightly around her, she opened the gate in the ramshackle fence around the boundary of the Weasleys' land and padded barefoot across the grass towards a well-worn path. It would lead Hermione away from the house and towards the cottage which Harry had moved into shortly after their graduation from Hogwarts six years before. After a moment's pause to reconsider her options and decide whether or not she wanted to go back to The Burrow and find some shoes, she began to follow the track through the trees.

Hermione was close enough to see the plume of smoke coming from Harry's chimney when there was a low whistle behind her. She turned just in time to see one of Harry's overnight houseguests, Blaise Zabini, emerge from the trees.

"Good morning," he said softly, and she realised he too was barefoot and clad in his nightwear.

She tried hard not to think about how gorgeous he was because when she did that, she tended to forget how to carry on an intelligent conversation and generally became reduced to communicating in grunts.

She failed miserably in the task she'd set herself.

His Slytherin-green robe was hanging open to reveal a pleasingly tanned and lightly muscled torso and a thin line of dark hair ran down from his belly button and disappeared beneath the waistband of his black pyjama bottoms.

She heard his soft chuckle and snapped her eyes back up from his navel to an angular face that by rights was far too handsome to belong to a mere mortal. His indigo eyes were amused, as if he knew exactly what her thoughts had been.

"Blaise, hi," she managed to say. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I could ask you the same question," he responded lazily, crossing over to stand in front of her. He ran a hand through his black curly hair and stretched. With some effort, Hermione managed to tear her eyes away from the way his robe slipped further down when his strong arms flexed, showing off more muscles. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"

"It is," she agreed, then paused. He quirked an eyebrow at her, as if waiting for her to go on, so she ploughed ahead. "I couldn't really sleep, so I thought I might as well go for a walk rather than tossing and turning and waking Ginny up."

"Pre-wedding jitters, is it?" Blaise asked.

"You could say it was something like that," Hermione conceded. She started to twist a strand of her brown hair around her finger. This conversation was only serving to make her more nervous, although she wasn't entirely sure why.

Blaise tipped his head to one side and considered her for a moment. "Not thinking about backing out, are you?"

"Maybe," she shrugged.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm scared."

"What is there to be scared of?" He sounded so genuinely surprised that Hermione felt quite stupid. It wasn't a feeling she enjoyed.

"I don't know. A million things," she started to tick them off on her fingers. "My dress might not fit, my dad might get drunk and start a fight with my Uncle Colin, the twins might slip some of their Wizarding Wheezes onto the buffet table…the groom might not show up."

He didn't say anything for a moment, and then he reached out a hand to her. "Come on, Hermione," Blaise said. "We're going to take a walk."

When she didn't react right away, he leaned over and grabbed her hand anyway and led her off the path into the trees.

They walked in silence until they found themselves at the very edge of Harry's property, at the side of the small pond where he was attempting to breed some Ghost Koi. No one had quite figured out exactly why he was trying to do this yet, but at least it kept Harry busy. After drifting around both the wizarding and Muggle worlds for 6 years following his defeat of Voldemort, he had finally decided to train as an Auror, but he had to wait another 3 months before his training program would start.

Blaise dragged her over to the small bench which Harry had recently installed and forced her to sit.

"Right then, what's all this nonsense about?" he asked. "Why are you thinking about calling off the wedding?"

"You wouldn't understand," Hermione pouted.

He crossed his arms over his bare chest and stared at her. "Try me."

She knew that look well. He had started staring at her like that during their first term of sixth year at Hogwarts, and it had driven her so mad that after three constant weeks of it, she had snapped and confronted him about it in the corridor after their Potions lesson.

After accusing him of trying to unnerve her so that she wouldn't be able to help Harry defeat Voldemort and throwing her Potions textbook at his head, Blaise had sat her down and quietly explained that he had simply wanted to attract her attention because he thought that they might become friends. He had decided that annoying her to death was the best way to go about it for two reasons – one, she had ignored all of his earlier attempts at making civil conversation in the library and so clearly preferred a bit of intrigue to a straightforward offer of friendship, and two, she hadn't killed Ron Weasley yet and he'd been annoying her for years, so Blaise stood a good chance of making it through the whole experience alive even if she did reject him.

He had somehow made it all sound so ridiculously rational that Hermione hadn't known how to respond. There had truly been nothing to do but agree with him. She could honestly say that she had been completely confused about his motives then and to a certain extent still was now, but they had become friends anyway, and Blaise had been confusing her on a regular basis ever since.

Hermione sighed heavily. "Look, Blaise, I've really enjoyed our little chat but-" she started to get to her feet. "I really have to get back. Molly is probably up by now and wondering where I am. She probably already thinks I've run away!"

"Granger," a warning note had crept into Blaise's voice and he only addressed her by her surname when he was really irritated with her. "Sit. And talk. You're not going anywhere until you do."

She sat back down meekly. "I really don't want to talk about this."

"Unfortunately, I've taken that decision out of your hands."

She closed her eyes so that she wouldn't have to see his expression and took another deep breath to steady herself. Her emotions were threatening to run away with her and if she was going to get married today, she didn't want to look like a complete wreck in the photos. Her uncontrollable hair would make them bad enough as it was without any further help. "Well, I mean, why would someone want to marry me?" she asked eventually. "I'm not exactly pretty. I'm bossy and overly opinionated and I talk far too much. In short, I'm a complete know-it-all."

Blaise sighed. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you? Hermione, you need to get over this ridiculous inferiority complex that you have." He paused. "Is this about what happened with Ron and Susan Bones?"

Hermione scowled at him. "Well, of course it is. It's always about Ron and Susan Bones." She thought back to the night she had found her boyfriend in bed with the pretty Hufflepuff and felt a familiar stab of pain in her gut. It had been four years, but the memory of the betrayal still hurt. It had taken her and Ron a long time to get past it, and even now it coloured her views on love.

"Well, at least you're honest," Blaise shook his head. "It's a start, I suppose. Anyway, listen to me very carefully, because I only intend on saying this once today, all right?" He leaned forward so that their foreheads were almost touching, and placed his hands on Hermione's shoulders. "You, Hermione Granger, are being completely ridiculous. You are a beautiful, sexy witch, and a wizard would have to be certifiably insane not to want to marry you and spend the rest of his life with you."

He paused, and Hermione found herself rolling her eyes at his solemnity. He gave her a quick grin in return before continuing.

"Furthermore, Susan Bones isn't a patch on you and nor is anyone else. I have absolutely no doubt that when you walk down that aisle today, you are going to look so stunning that all of the men in the congregation will be robbed of their speech and wish they were the one waiting to marry you. No other bride will ever be able to compare with you and believe me, they will try. They will work themselves into a complete frenzy trying to top you."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "A complete frenzy, eh?"

"Indeed," Blaise confirmed seriously, but she could see the laughter lurking in the depths of his beautiful eyes. "And it's not just in the looks area that these other witches will be woefully inadequate. Your searing intelligence and fabulous sense of humour make you the most desirable witch in the whole of Great Britain and you are, quite frankly, the best company in the world. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather spend an hour in a dark forest with than you. Which is probably just as well, given that it's you I'm here with."

The smirk which had been playing around her lips since he started speaking had now developed into a fully-fledged smile, but when he paused for breath again she adopted a serious expression. "Are you quite finished?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I could probably go on," Blaise replied, as if he was honestly considering doing so. "I was helping Harry write his speech for the wedding last night, and we spent quite a lot of time pouring over a thesaurus coming up with appropriate words to describe your bridesmaid. I have at least another 9 words for 'gorgeous' which I haven't had a chance to use yet. There's 'ravishing' and 'delectable' and-" He stopped when she placed a finger over his lips before throwing her head back and laughing.

"Please, don't go on. I'm not sure my ego could take it."

He drew back and smiled at her, a devastating smile which she swore made her heart stop for a moment. "All right, have it your way. So how was that? Are you satisfactorily convinced that you are the perfect woman?"

"No," Hermione shook her head. "I'm not convinced, because I know I'm not perfect. However…I am coming to suspect that you, Blaise Zabini, might just be the perfect man." And she leaned forward and planted her lips firmly on his.

She could tell that Blaise was momentarily stunned by her action from the way his entire body stiffened at the contact, but to give him his due, he caught on admirably quickly. When she licked his bottom lip, impatiently seeking to deepen the kiss, he parted his lips without hesitation and slanted his head to give her better access to his mouth, and as her tongue flicked out to tangle with his, his hands slid around her back and down under her bum before he pulled her bodily onto his lap.

Hermione pushed him gently back so that he was lying on the bench and shifted position so that she was straddling him before his mouth closed in on hers again. Her hands moved to push his robe completely off of his chest and she raked her nails across his bare skin. He shuddered beneath her and bucked his hips at the sensation, drawing an involuntary squeak from her. Then his hand on her chin forced her to tear her mouth away from his, and she dazedly raised her eyes to meet his lust-darkened gaze.

"Merlin, Hermione, you really have no idea of the effect you have on me, do you?" he moaned softly.

She bent her head to nibble at the tender flesh by his collarbone. "Why don't you show me?" she whispered across his heated skin, fascinated by the way he shivered again at the caress of her breath on his neck.

In answer, his hands slid up under her robe and nightgown and stroked the smooth skin of her back, before she raised herself up slightly to allow him to reach round and touch her breasts. When his fingers closed gently around her nipples, they hardened instantly and she gulped audibly at the exquisite feelings caused by his hands on her. He gave another chuckle at her reaction.

"That is exactly what you do to me," he told her huskily, kneading her breasts with gentle hands. She gazed down at him with heavily-lidded eyes, almost unable to speak, completely lost in the moment and in Blaise. "How do you feel?"

Unconsciously, Hermione licked her lips before answering, and Blaise's eyes followed the path of her tongue enviously. "I feel," she gasped as he pulled her down on top of him again so that he could reach her mouth, "I feel beautiful."

His hands tangled in her hair as he brushed little kisses down from her cheeks to her nose, before finally coming to settle on her lips. "That's because you are beautiful."

"Hermione! Hermione, are you here?"

They both sat bolt upright at the sound of Ginny's voice, Hermione almost falling off Blaise's knee in her fright. Automatically, his arms shot out to steady her.

"Are you okay?" he asked as she scrambled up and tried to fix her dishevelled appearance. She pulled her nightgown back down firmly over her thighs and straightened her robe before trying to bring some semblance of order to her hair.

"I can't believe we did this," she muttered. "How completely and utterly stupid are we! How completely and utterly stupid am I! What on earth was I thinking!"

Blaise, looking rather ruffled himself, made no such move to smarten himself up. "It's all right, Hermione, she's not coming down here."

"It's not all right," Hermione hissed, rounding on him. "Can you imagine what she would think if she caught us? It's my wedding day! I'm meant to be excitedly getting dressed in a virginal white gown, not sneaking out for a quick shag in my best friend's back garden!" Flustered, she looked around for her slippers before remembering she hadn't been wearing them. "I have to go!"

She ran off without waiting for an answer. A slightly bemused Blaise watched her go, reaching up to touch his lips. "You know, technically, we weren't shagging. Not yet, anyway," he called after her, just loud enough to reach her ears but too soft for Ginny's to detect.

"Shut _up_!"

* * *

Despite Hermione's pre-wedding jitters, the day went off without a hitch. Her dress fit her perfectly and many of the men in the congregation did indeed lose the power of speech as she swept down the aisle on her father's arm. Both her dad and her Uncle Colin got far too drunk on Firewhisky to be able to throw a punch, never mind land one, and Molly's feast went mercifully untainted by Fred and George (although Hermione did suspect that one of them might have slipped her annoying cousin Stephen a Canary Cream when she wasn't looking. The yellow feathers were a bit of a giveaway, after all.). Mercifully, Harry's speech only made use of 5 different words meaning 'gorgeous', and Ginny predictably swooned at each one. It was, Hermione thought as she took a sip of champagne and surveyed her guests from the balcony, definitely going to be one of those weddings where the bridesmaid and best man sneaked off together during the evening.

And as for the groom – well, he most decidedly showed up.

He was, after all, eager to finish what had been started on the wooden bench by Harry's pond in the early hours of his wedding day.

"Remind me to thank Ron later," Hermione's new husband said quietly as he walked up behind her and slid his arms around her.

Smiling, she turned in his embrace to look up at him. "And why exactly would you want to do a thing like that?"

Blaise leaned down to plant a chaste kiss on her temple. "Well, for being enough of an idiot to let you go in the first place, of course. If it wasn't for his stupidity and inability to keep his hands off Susan Bones, it might have been him waiting for you at the end of that aisle today, and not me. And that would not have done at all."

With a tender smile, Hermione reached up to run her fingertips along his jaw, the emerald and diamond wedding band he'd slid onto the third finger of her left hand catching the light as she did so.

"It would always have been you, Blaise Zabini," she whispered huskily. "I love you."

He dipped his head towards her and captured her lips with his own. "And I love you, Hermione Zabini."

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